By Michael McMullan

DOWN missed out on promotion by a whisker and were beaten in Ulster, but they’ve picked up form and step into the knock-out stages of the All-Ireland race with the visit of Monaghan on Sunday.

A comfortable win over Cavan was their passport from the group stages even though they lost to Roscommon by four points.

But with a superior score difference Down topped the group and have home advantage on Sunday against their Ulster rivals.

Laoise Duffy is a key member of the Down forward line and hopes they are getting into the groove at the business end of the year.

Reflecting on their journey to this point, they were seconds away from gaining promotion to Division Two for next year only to be hit by a late Antrim goal as the Saffrons pipped them at the post.

“That was tough enough,” Duffy said. “We started the league quite well, but then I think as it went on, our performances dipped a bit.

“Then we were out of the Ulster competition in the semi-final stage as well. We definitely learned a lot from that, and I think we’re just hoping now that things are falling into place.”

Cavan were fancied to go deep into the championship but were beaten comprehensively by Down and have since been eliminated.

“In that Cavan game, I think it felt like things were really starting to click for us,” Duffy said of their performance.

“We’re just hoping that we’re peaking at the right time now and we’ve got good resilience from those few games that were maybe a bit tougher.”

Aside from learning the lessons of painful defeats, Duffy feels Down have been improving their style of play, mainly in attack.

“I think that we felt like we weren’t clicking that well throughout the league,” she said.

“We’ve just worked on developing a few different styles and things that work well for us.

“It’s just been working on them in training and then just trying to maintain that strong defence that we’ve had.”

Looking ahead to their date with Monaghan, Down will remember their defeat in the Ulster semi-final meeting. It wasn’t a performance they were happy with but have since moved on.

“That’s what makes it a bit more satisfying that we get to have another go at them now in the All-Ireland Championship,” Duffy said.

“I think we feel like we have made some good improvements since then. We want to go out and we want to right that wrong from Ulster.”

Away from the busy schedule of training and games, Duffy says that ladies football in general within the county is improving.

That is typified by her alma mater Our Lady and St Patrick’s Knock’s recent All-Ireland senior title.

“Within the county, I feel like we’ve been really raising our standards every year,” she said.

“I think the popularity and the attention that ladies football has been getting within the county is growing.

“With this home venue that we have, we really want to get a big crowd there and get some of the younger girls out to support.

“I think that’s going to be something we’re really driving for. Whatever we can do, as players, to push on the game as well I think is good.

“We’re just going to try and encourage some of the younger girls to get out to it so that they can help support us on the day.”